Our essence governs the manner in which we develop and it does this according to numerological patterns which vary between men and women. Men operate according to an eight-year cycle meaning that key events take place every eight years whilst women operate to the celestial number of seven meaning that at seven-year intervals changes take place within their system. The seven-year cycles for women are summarised below:
- At age 7 a woman’s essence should begin to consolidate around the region of the Kidneys. The result of this is her energy reaches high levels, her permanent teeth come through and her hair grows thick and long.
- At age 14 a woman’s essence starts to produce menstrual blood and so menstruation begins. The governing and conception meridian become active with regards to procreation and so it becomes possible to conceive a child. That being said, it is also the case that it takes a few more years before the procreative energy with the tow meridian stabilises enough for it to be healthy for her to become pregnant.
- At age 21 the Kidney energy is strong and abundant, wisdom teeth appear in the mouth and the body is full of vitality. The spirit should be nourished through the growth of essence at this stage resulting in a stabilisation of the emotions and the beginning of ‘adult-type’ thought processes.
- At age 28 the bones and tendons are said to be strong and fully developed. This is the peak of essence development for a woman and so the strongest point in her life with regards to levels of abundance of energy and essence. Her body at this age should be fully formed as this is seen as the height of female development.
- At age 35 the digestive-based meridian begins to move into decline, this in turn causes the face to lose some of its essence due to the pathway of the Stomach and Large Intestine meridians. This means that wrinkles can start to appear on the face and a woman’s hair can begin to grow thinner.
- At age 42 many of the meridians begin to grow more depleted meaning ageing becomes more obvious and the hair starts to turn grey.
- At age 49 a woman has reached the culmination of the developmental processes of her essence which matches the numerical pattern of 7 multiplied by 7. At this age her conception and thrusting meridians cease to function to any major amount. The menstrual blood ceases to flow and menopause is entered. This prevents a woman from being able to conceive. It is also said to be the beginning of a woman’s spiritual age, a period known as the ‘second spring’ within Daoist medical literature.
Of course, these ages are only guidelines and as such a woman can find that she reaches these milestones within a year or so either direction. It is natural for the essence to take a woman through this process and if there is too much of a deviation from these numbers then it is said that there has been a disturbance within the progression of the essence either from physical sickness or emotional imbalance. This is particularly true with regards to the ages of commencement of menstruation and menopause which are key manifestations of the quality and movement of Blood, the key internal substance for a woman to seek to regulate.